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than 117 of the whole number were found to have
resulted from violence, which was accidental in 87
instances, suicidal in 19, homicidal in 3; and in 8
instances, the cause of death was not determined.
Uncertified deaths.— The deaths not certified bymedical
testimony, the number of which amounted to
125, or 3.3 per cent. of all deaths during the past year,
continue to attract attention. Assuming the number in
this district as indicative of the amount occurring
throughout the country, it becomes at once manifest to
what a great extent the Registrar-General's Returns,
from which are derived Life Insurance Tables, &c., are
invalidated; and, which is of far greater importance,
seeing that in the absence of medical testimony any of
these deaths may have resulted from other than natural
causes, to what extent the claim of society for protection
against the possible perpetration of secret crime
remains passively unrecognized by the law. It is much
to be regretted that so simple a remedy as the employment
of medical investigation in all instances in which
the cause of death has not been certified by a registered
Medical Practitioner has not been long since provided
against a continuance of this great and increasing laxity
in the registration of deaths.
Sanitation.— Table VI. in the Appendix exhibits the
nature and amount of the principal sanitary proceedings
which were carried out during the year. As might be
anticipated by a consideration of the condition arising
out of a vastly and rapidly increasing population, the
work is seen to have been of a more varied and extensive
nature than heretofore; this is especially the case as
regards the inspection and disinfection of houses and
B*